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Apprehension swept through the pack of Padawans, turning to dread in Cora's stomach. Danger sense flared in the Force like an alarm.
She hadn't realized that Makko had fallen away from the pack, but the sudden explosion caused her to skitter to a halt while clambering through the tunnel with Jalen. Her head swiveled, honing in on the blue haired girl shouldering a rocket launcher.
"Did she just-" Cora gasped, wondering if she was sent by the temple to watch over them, or if she were somehow an interloper. Either way, this was unexpected.
As Makko scrambled to the roof, Cora's focus was pulled back to the task at had by Jalen.
"R-right." She asserted, panic rising in her throat as the droids surged closer.
Cora nearly faltered when the tubing gave way to the open air of the warehouse. "You go first, Jalen." She hissed authoritatively, pushing the younger blonde in front of her and towards the first chain that would take them descending toward the floor. "Now!"
The droids were closing in, and no sooner had she pressed Jalen forward did one of them crawl through the tunnel and grasp for her leg.
"H-hey!" Heart pounding in her throat, Cora was almost immobilized by fear at the sight of the droid's partially melted, decrepit face in the darkness of the tube. She yanked her foot away from its clawing hand, unintentionally scooting forward, and suddenly she was falling.
A missile streaked across the rubble strewn wilderness.
"We're under attack!" Makko cried out.
He saw the explosion back in the pile of scrap landspeeders, but didn't follow it to source. He was busy running. Makko would have never imagined that it had come from that rocket launcher.
Having skipped the tubes, he managed to catch the others. He arrived just in time to see Cora tumble into the opening. Makko could only hope she managed to grab one of the chains as she went.
He leapt off the edge. The warehouse was several stories high and many chains had been hung from the ceiling, with more winding between the verticals to make a maze. It was going to be a hard climb down, or a sudden drop and a painful stop.
Jalen didn't process the rocket that had just been fired. Cora had just fallen past him. He had felt it very clearly. That was his friend. A wave of determination welled from inside the blind boy's chest.
"CORA!" he shouted, his voice echoing out, rippling through the junk surrounding them.
A burst of telekinetic energy came from his scrawny body as he reached out his right hand, his left hand still clutched to the chain they were propelling themselves down. Cora would find herself stopping abruptly, as if a large hand had caught her by the torso. Then, she would begin to drift slowly and safely down to the ground. Other bits of metal scrap would begin to float around the older padawan. Some small, some as large as Jalen.
Then, as soon as it had happened, the scrap returned to the surface it had been sitting and collecting rust on for months on end. Jalen's grip loosened, his body going numb. The auras seemed to fade away around him. It was dark. Fully dark this time.
The boy's blind eyes would roll up into his head, and his unconscious body released the chain he had been climbing down. In one moment, great and unusual power. The next was a state of helplessness, asleep and unsupported. His right leg was tangled in the chain for a moment, giving a second of delay to the inevitable.
Hexes inner voices '...Neutral...' '...Doubt...' '...Anger...'
Coloured '.....' are also words that Hex can hear , but I decided not to write them to reduce clutter
The last of the random scrap hoppers had climbed onto the roof of the warehouse and disappeared inside, leaving Hex outside with the droids who were beginning to take shots at her. She picked up speed quickly and she held onto the board with her free hand, pulling into a crouch to reduce her profile and also tighten up her turns. Her long blue hair braids flailed out behind her as she flashed past the windows of the warehouse, barely dodging some repeater blaster fire. She pulled out candles and began loosing off some rounds, but her effort to keep out of their fire was hampering her own, she probably needed to get some elevation and enter the building with the others, but she was having too much...
"CHIT!" she shouted as a beam from a heavy repeater grazed her unarmoured thigh, ripping her shorts bringing a tear to her eye. "Oh no you didn't!"
Hex concentrated and the space folding amulet on her chest opened up a fold a few metres ahead of her, it was not a moment too soon as she vanished into nothing just as the heavy repeater got a lock and opened fire, thankfully blowing holes in the warehouse windows instead of the teenage girl. The offending droid had a few moments to be confused and did not notice the other fold that had appeared a dozen metres behind him. Nor did he notice the board riding teen with a blinking party popper in her hand as she blew towards him, dropping the party popper so it would detonate close to the droid. It was far from an exact science, but the loud bang and lack of return fire made her feel she had succeeded so she risked a look over her shoulder as she pulled up to get to the roof. The droid was not destroyed but his repeater arm was busted and he had dropped the heavy weapon, at least that was a bonus.
The warehouse wasn't that big, so it was only seconds before she got to the hole in the roof, quickly dropping in to see what was going on.
'...You know they might just shoot you right?...' "Oh yeah, thanks."
"HEY GUYS! I'm not a droid!" she called out, obviously just underlining the fact that they could now see her. "You lot need a hand or should I keep blowing up the clanky ones?" She cackled. Hex's role had always been fire support, she was good at it and could try and keep the others safe while they dealt with the injured girl on the floor. She looked at Makko Vyres
, it was the first time she had seen him since the party and she gave an uncharacteristically bashful smile "Hi..." but then it dawned on her, he was the only one here who knew her real name and other the pseudonym she used when outside of darkwire, her eyes widened momentarily but she quickly reacted. "I'm Ellie"
As if on cue, the droids quickly revealed their intent was not to play games. The commotion from the other padawans confirmed as much. Tenn sighed, and began to head back, only for trouble to spill into the warehouse. There was hardly time to react to everything as he was effectively caught in the middle, watching padawan and droid alike fall into the jungle of chains. One of the latter made a grab for him, catching Tenn's leg and causing him to slide down the chain. "Ey! Feth off! Piece of junk!"He grumbled, kicking at the machine with his free leg.
His grumblings were cut off as he saw the youngest of their group losing consciousness, briefly caught in one of the chains before hitting freewill, "Chit…" He looked down at the droid now practically climbing up his leg, and made a split second decision to leap off his chain, making a daring grab for Jalen. Tenn snatched the kid's collar, and hit the next chain with a dull groan, just managing to stop from falling off completely. His arm twisted and jerked harshly against the two weights now bearing down on him. There was little to actually do on his part without letting go of either the chain or Jalen, so he was forced to watch as a barely functioning droid scaled its way further up his frame.
One second she was free falling, and then she…wasn’t. Cora opened her tightly shut eyes to find herself floating steadily to the ground. Something unseen had wrapped around her midriff, causing shards of debris to hover around her. The padawan’s head snapped upwards to see Jalen wearing an intense mask of concentration, clinging to a chain with one hand while the other extended towards her.
The moment her feet touched the warehouse floor–which was filthy–Jalen’s marked feat of telepathy withered away, his hold slipping from the chain.
“No!” She gasped, scrambling to position herself beneath the falling blonde so that she could brace his fall. Fortunately, Tenn had swung back onto the scene and managed to catch Jalen by the collar before the boy could become a blonde puddle on the disgusting floor. Cora’s shoulders lowered in relief as she flashed him a grateful look, but now one of the droids was trying to clamber its way up Tenn.
Cora’s focus shifted suddenly to the interloper–now identified as a pretty blue-haired girl named Ellie. Particularly, she found herself honing in on the bashful smile as she introduced herself to Makko. Irritation bubbled in the back of her throat, which it often did when the tattooed delinquent was concerned, but this time it had caught her off guard. Turning away sharply, she brought her attention back to the chaos at hand.
Right. Stop getting distracted.
With both hands extended, Cora concentrated on lifting a few smaller pieces of shrapnel from the floor before telekinetically flinging them at the droid grasping Tenn. It was a feat by no means on the same scale as what Jalen had done, but she hoped that her direct assault would help loosen the droid from Tenn’s leg.
“Jalen! Wake up!” Calling out to the youngest of the lot, she pleaded for him to open his eyes.
Makko clung for dear life to the chains. He had deeply underestimated how much they would hurt. There was no give in them, so he was instantly bruised from armpit to armpit by the landing.
The sound of one of the droids above him and distant blaster fire was more than enough to help him ignore the pain and to keep climbing down.
He could only watch in abject horror as Cora went tumbling for the ground. He felt bile rise at the back of his throat knowing that he was powerless to help. Makko heard Jalen call her name and suddenly her momentum was arrested.
Makko breathed again.
Jalen in turn fell, but was caught by Tenn. Makko found himself breathing hard, the reality of the danger they were in finally hitting home. He had been running on adrenaline.
Makko knew how to chance his luck and look after himself, but so far his training hadn't give him a single tool to help his fellow padawans. He felt downright ashamed for himself.
The sound of the board had him looking up to see that their mysterious spectator was actually Hex. A girl whose number he had lost at a house party back on Denon.
"What are you doing here? We're on Coruscant..."
Makko grunted and swung to another chain. The droid behind him only had one arm and fell to the ground below as it tried to follow.
"...in the middle of a giant scrapyard...oh yeah. That tracks. Can that thing carry two?"
There were still mangled droids clambering down the chains. Some fell, but they mostly survived the drop, crawling along the concrete floor towards the padawans.
Jalen didn't know what anyone he cared about looked like. Not Cora, not Maran, not Valery... Not even his own brother. That didn't stop his imagination from conjuring forms in his head, silhouettes that shared their aura, looming in the distance. Tallest and strongest of them all was Jasper, whom his mind had conjured as an older version of himself. Longer hair, more scarred and tattered from combat, a warm smile ever present on his face. The others stood around him, vague forms covered in shadow, but very distinctly organic. Slowly, the shadows began to turn, slipping away into the nothingness. With each departure, everything around Jalen grew brighter... hotter... Eventually, only two remained.
It was him and his brother, engulfed by flames. Jasper didn't react. He simply continued to smile, turning and vanishing into the fire. It would take everything again. Consume what he held close to him. Jalen would be alone. Just like before.
"WAIT!" Jalen shouted desperately into the flames. "DON'T GO!"
No response came. The padawan fell to his knees, a hand scraping against the ground. The fire had faded. Only ash remained now.
"Please don't leave me..."
The youngest of the padawans remained still, even as Cora desperately pleaded with him to wake. Still, to the observant eye, Jalen's distress would be clear. His skin was clammy and sweating, his breathing ever so slightly accelerated. It was almost as though he was coming down with a fever. Then, out of nowhere, a voice would ring out in their minds. Desperate... Sad...
< Please... don't leave... >
Jalen's lips didn't move. His eyes didn't open. The boy remained asleep.
Hexes inner voices '...Neutral...' '...Doubt...' '...Anger...'
Coloured '.....' are also words that Hex can hear , but I decided not to write them to reduce clutter
The noise from more droids clambering across the roof to follow them down rattled through the large space like bones and it sent a chill down Hex's spine. She looked at the other teens as she introduced herself, but there wasn't much choice.
"Well not chasing down boys who forget to call me if that's what you are thinking!" she laughed and stuck her tongue at him, catching the minor side eye given to her from Corazona von Ascania
, but not having the social finesse to really deal with it.
'...There is more coming you know, you can flirt later...'
"Oh yeah... right, sure it fits two, you better hang on tight." she eased herself closer to him and let her link arms and pull himself onto her board before wrapping his arms armour her middle. She put one of her hands on his putting his arms into the correct position around her waist before setting off. Hairs prickled on her skin as she felt him embrace her.
'...What the feth is that about?...' "shhhhh"
Hex dropped down a few feet to quickly gain speed before pulling up and going into a climbing arc around the room, she had gotten used to riding with other shadowrunners behind her so it wasn't much problem for her keeping her balance as long as he didn't do anything stupid. She leaned into the turn and spoke "Where to?" she asked, she thought she heard him say down, so she followed his request, immediately losing height and descending to the floor.
Hex's eyes went wide and it almost threw her balance.
"Who?... what?" '...It isnt us...'
Another chill went down her spine but the new voice did not seem to be persisting so she shook her head abd focused. She slid onto the floor and reluctantly let the boy back off of her board. If anyone called down to her from above she would make return trips, but otherwise when would prepare to fight as more of the droids made their presence known. Luckily the mods equipped with firearms were poorly suited to climbing, but it didn't make the clankers any less dangerous and one of them landed hard on the ground not far from her and Makko, it's servers whirring as it returned to its full height after cushioning itself from the jump. It scanned the room around itself looking for targets.
Between the droid, Jalen's mental intrusion, and everything else going on around them, Tenn was struggling to muster up a better defense, "Come on, kid, wake up!" He muttered through gritted teeth, lightly shaking the boy in his grasp to no avail. The droid was around his torso now, continuing to scale him even as it was pelted with shrapnel and debris. Servomotors crackled and groaned from strain and age, while pieces of metal dug uncomfortably into Tenn's skin. Finally, the droid faltered, but the weight of its shift caused Tenn's grip to fully loosen from the chain, "Shhhit-" The three of them dropped into freefall, for just a few precious seconds.
He had just enough time to pull up Jalen by his chest, contorting in such a way that he fell on Tenn, and Tenn fell on the droid. The latter hit the ground with a reverberant clang, and it's head popped off on impact, rolling across the ground with a few final sputterings of blood-like oil, and indiscernible binary. They all laid there in eerie stillness for just a moment, until Tenn stirred, "Ow…" He carefully rolled off the machine corpse, afraid of having broken something of his or Jalen's, "That fethin' hurt," The padawan groaned, resting Jalen against a support beam while he caught his breath, "Is he alright?"
In trying very hard to ignore whatever was going on with Makko and the blue-haired girl, Cora found herself paying attention to every word. Or what she could hear of it, anyway.
One brow quirked, she glanced in their direction as Hex's hoverboard descended to see Makko wrap his arms around her. Cora bristled, and turned away abruptly. Whatever. He probably has a dozen girl's holonumbers anyway.
Then, Tenn and Jalen came crashing down. Cora jolted from her not-jealousy, feeling a sudden pang of regret for not being there to try and lessen their fall.
"Tenn! Jalen! Are you alright?"
She flashed a concerned look to Tenn before pressing her hands to the unconscious boy's shoulders. "Jalen, Jalen wake up!" She shook him gently, panic etched onto her face. Something wasn't quite right.
Cora's hands stilled and her gaze unfocused as the voice penetrated her mind.
What the…
Shaking her head wildly, she attempted to rid the unwelcome voice from her conscience. She looked to Tenn, her concern deepening. "Did...did you hear that?" Cora swallowed down her panic and focused.
"Keep them off of us!" She called desperately before turning back to Jalen. Pressing a thumb to his forehead, she closed her eyes and willed the Force to shield around her own mind. It was one of the skills Valery had imparted to her while they explored a Sith tomb, a barrier that would keep malicious energies from piercing the mind. Cora wasn't sure exactly what was at play here, but she'd attempt to extend her protection towards the younger blonde. Hopefully that would purge whatever distressed thoughts were invading his conciseness.
"It's alright…" She breathed. "Just...wake up, Jalen. Please."
Oh, Jasper would be so sad if any harm were to come to his little brother. Cora didn't want to let down someone she looked up to.
"Pretty sure you forgot to give me your number," Makko replied. Drinking heavily could have gone one of two ways: losing inhibitions and doing something regretful, or losing awareness and falling asleep on the sofa and missing out. That party had gone the second way for Makko.
Makko was particularly open to the telepathic call. He was always open to both the thoughts and feelings of others and the mechanisms of machinery. He still held little control over how he manipulated these and had put in place no defences against them. His hand almost slipped from Hex's waist as the voice bounced around the inside of his head. He tightened his grip, and stumbled back off the board as soon as they were down.
Tenn and Cora were desperately trying to get Jalen back up. At the far end of the hall was green paint over handholds set into the wall to allow people to climb up to a bridge connecting to the next warehouse. At this point, the race was well over.
Makko gave Cora a sharp nod. chains rattled as more droids tossed themselves down after the group. Some landed hard and didn't get back up. Others were still working.
"Smash stuff, got it."
Makko picked up a lump of masonry, ran forwards two steps and launched it at the head of the nearest droid. He looked around for a more effective weapon.
Makko Vyres
Tenn Kalos
Jalen Kai'el
Hex
Cinjay Saito
